Number 03: All Quiet on the Western Front (Best Picture Ranking)

When I started this rating, I had little doubt that Absent with the Wind would be my number 1 motion picture from the 30s. But 1 of the final movies I noticed was All Quiet on the Western Front and all of a sudden Gone with the Wind dropped to variety 2. Personally, I was not anticipating to be blown away like this by this anti-war movie from the early 30s but I was!

It seems nearly peculiar to look at an anti-war movie that was produced prior to World War II but I consider the truth that this motion picture was created just before the Nazis arrived to power assisted to make this a extremely balanced film that treats its German characters with the same respect that American people would acquire considering that soon after Planet War II, even films about Entire world War I look to turn Germany into Nazi-land: The prequel.

Of program, the question is: could it be that I only appreciate this motion picture this significantly since of the German characters and the German level-of-view? But I strongly doubt it due to the fact I never ever even thought about nationality while watching this motion picture which is probably the biggest compliment I can give it at the very same time – it’s a story that is not about nations, it is about the horror of war and how propaganda turns even the most smart guys into blind servants of dying. Of course, All Quiet on the Western Front can't disguise its age but thinking about that only two years prior the Academy honored videos like The Broadway Melody or Coquette, can make this movie only even more remarkable.

It’s difficult to describe what it is about All Peaceful on the Western Front that produced it get to number three in my ranking. I believe it is the simple reality that no other anti-war movie has at any time shattered me as a lot as this one. I believe the cause for this is the way that the central figures are offered – how they are blinded at faculty by their fanatic trainer who bullies them into battling for their place and find out at the initial working day at the front that truth is really different. It is their struggle for one thing to take in, their dread of loss of life, their naivety in comparison to the knowledge of the guys who are already at the entrance that truly produces the energy of the movie. The sequence that exhibits a pair of boots that go from a single killed soldier to the following is specially unforgettable. It’s the desperation that dominates the life of these youngsters that turns All Quiet on the Western Entrance into one particular of the most haunting motion pictures in heritage – the graphic of Paul, the central character of the tale, praying besides the deathbed of his buddy Kemmerich, telling God that Kemmerich does not want to die is definitely heartbreaking.

The battle sequences of this motion picture are also 1st-class in their technical execution and devastating in their information. The fight scenes at the graveyard are horrifying but even more so is the scene of Paul currently being trapped with each other with a French soldier whom he has mortally wounded. The troopers is slowly and gradually dying next to Paul who is nearly heading insane with guilt and grief. But the motion picture also captures some peaceful times that are just as potent – when Paul satisfies a French female and goes to her residence with her, we really do not want to see some sex scene as we would probably right now the shot of some shadows and the voices of Paul and the lady are ample and produce a scene that is considerably more memorable than anything more ‘obvious’ could have been.

All Peaceful on the Western Front is as potent as a motion picture can be and it does not only concentrate on the horror of the war at the front but also the horror of the war at home – when Paul will come residence and sees his previous trainer striving to persuade other boys to go to war it gets to be clear to him and the viewers that there will be no stop to this senseless killing. The ultimate impression of the movie displays the mass graves exactly where Europe’s nations bury their future. 

All Quiet on the Western Entrance would seem to be both a vintage but also a rather forgotten motion picture but I happily discovered it as one particular of the most potent statements from war ever created.